What's that sound?

This is a discussion on What's that sound? within Technical Stuff, part of the Under the Hood category; I get squeaking sound coming from headunit whenever my santro hits a bump in the road. Sound can be reproduced ...

I have a 2005 Swift Vxi. I have already replaced the wheel bearings twice in the 4 years of ownership. The first time was after my tire upgrade from stock to 195/60/R15 in 2006 and the second time recently when I had changed my tires to 205/55/R15. Is it true that the wheel bearings get busted due to the load exerted by wider tires? I know its the wheel bearings as there is this lound humming sound emitted when going above 60kmph.

Now, I drove to Mahabaleshwar last weekend on these busted wheel bearings. Everything was fine except for the noisy drive. However, on my return trip, a new sound has emerged from the front. It is a wierd scruffing/gringing sound which fades away at high speeds but is very prominent at very low speeds. As the weather was rainy and foggy, I was thinking it could be the brakes getting jammed. I have noticed that it does'nt occur when i start my car for the day but starts after the first time I use the brakes and remain throughout the day.

What could this issue be. Is it the brakes or bearings getting worse? I am anyway giving my car for a complete service next week.

Thanks in advance.

Epic

Hi all,

Just wanted to update you guys on the above issue that has been worrying me since October 2009 as the so called Maruti 'authorised' service center i.e. Vitesse Andheri West, could not figure out the issue till today and were guessing that the suspension needed lubrication and it is something minor. I was however finding the car not handling upto my satisfaction, which was strange as the Swift is known for its brilliant handling. And also the wheel bearings kept busting which was making me suspect my upsized wheels.

I had given the car to Vitesse last in October 2009 for servicing and changinh the wheel bearings. Now, the warranty of my car expired in December 2009. Since the guys at M.A.S.S. could'nt do anything about the 'scruffing' noise issue (and when I look back I guess they didn't want to do anything about it as the car was under warranty at that time), I decided to now give my car to my local garage. So i gave it to him yesterday to sort out the issue. Now, he is an ex-Maruti guy and can figure out the problem by just taking the car for a test drive. So during the test drive, he came to two conclusions, it is either a worn out brake disc/brake pads OR an issue with the hub assembly. So I left the car with him as he told me that he needed to open it up and check it out for sure and he would cal me and update me with the issue accordingly.

On removing the front wheels, he was shocked to see that the hub nuts on both sides were loose giving both the front wheels a good amount of play and which was also making the hub & brake discs wobble leading them to tounch the brake pads erratically creating the 'scruffing' sound. It made us wondered as to why these nuts were loose. We however thought our problem was solved and that the case was loose hub nuts. On tightening the nuts we realised that both brake discs were still wobbling and the scruffing sound was more audible like in the beginning and then came to a conclusion that the hub assembly was busted. I was shocked as to how come such an evident problem was not spotted by the guys at M.A.S.S? To which my mechanic told me that they may have spotted the problem but did not report it as it would have to be changed through warranty and they would'nt want to absorb that cost. So instead they gave the wheels play so that the noise is less audible. He also told me that a busted hub leads to a busted wheel bearing as they are connected in some way. This explains the handling issues due to play in the wheels and the regular wheel bearing changes due to busted hub assemblies. The M.A.S.S. guys however kept blaming the upsized wheels for the regular busted bearings.

Now I wanted to know the reason for the hub assembly being damaged as my mechanic also agreed that a hub assembly usually gets damaged during an accident involving a side impact. I had an accident involving a side impact in 2007. Which means that again, the guys at M.A.S.S didn't change the hub assembly as required at that time and which in time has led to regular busted wheel bearings and an even more damaged hub assembly in due time.

My mechanic had also mentioned that it is always recommended to visit your local mechanic a month before your warranty ends so that he can identify mechanical issues which can be recitified under warranty by the authorised service center.

Thanks Epic. It is an excellent suggestion to get your car checked by an outside mechanic a month prior to the warranty getting over. In fact, less than a month after my warranty got over, i had a wierd sound coming from the suspension of my car & had to pay to get it fixed.

Last month I had been to them stating that my REAR wiper is not working and their analysis was that the wiper motor is damaged and needs to be replaced. Ofcourse since they did not have the part ready asked me to fix an appointment and come later for getting it corrected.

Instead of waiting, thought will take a chance with another general car mechanic (Patel Auto) . After a minutes inspection the attendent called an assistant and briefed him to look up. We were just speaking for about 2 minutes when the attendent informed the car is ready.

Confused I asked him, what was wrong and how did it get fixed so easily.

whenever i put on AC on the 3rd marker, the fan noise increases drastically.
I think noise is same as the one from summer water cooller, once it goes dry.

the MASS is telling that is there is some problem with fan-motor.
any idea what is it and how, where can it be fixed in pune?

had done the top-up for ac. but the problem still persists.
now even the ac is not that effective. it takes ages to cool the cabin.
again the MASS informed that the fan-motor armature is the culprit and would cost 2k to replace it.
Let me know if anyone has done it.

the wagonr AC problem is fixed now.
changed the refrigerant, cleaned the whole setup and now the ac is working fine.
cost me 2.2k for cleaning and ~300 for refrigerant at the chougule MASS in katraj in pune.

I am getting a squealing sound from under the hood after a cold start. The sound is heard even at idling, when the windows are down. Sound is not audible inside the cabin with the windows up. The sound goes away after a minute or so. Car is otherwise running fine.

The sound is similar to the last sound mentioned in the opening post.

This sound has started coming after I drove the car over water-logged roads. (Water was not too deep, a few inches deep only)

1. Where is the sound coming from ?

2. What is this belt everyone is talking about ? (I am not well versed with engines)

3. What is the urgency of getting it rectified ? (I would prefer to get it rectified after the rains are over)

i have zen 04 lxi the issue is ever since i bought it when ever i start the car(most either early morning or after 2 -3 hours of not using it) it makes a hissing noise and make the matter worst the car battery died one day without any reason, i took it to a battery charging shop the guy looked interchanged the battery and told me that the alternator ha gone bad and needed a fix, i was also kind a thinking that it may be it since the battery was working fine a few mins ago and the noise it made from the alternator.
on asking how much it cost he said 2000 buck so i told him to put the battery back on and thought of getting the battery charged which i did at a different shop.
after getting it charger the car started with the same noise worked fine and i parked it back in the morning i started the car worked fine but while driving suddenly the music system stopped working and the lights and the horn went low ,came to work parked the car tried to start again and no.. the battery had died

so now i am thinking yes it was the alternator becasue i got the belts checked ealry and they all were fine

can any one tell me how much does it cost to repair or to replace the alternator.
thanks

Hi,
I have a 3 month old swift which has done around 2800 km on the odo.

When I switch on the AC and drive, I can notice a distinct whine coming from the engine bay. This whine remains all the time for the duration AC is switched on. This whine increases with speed. However, I cannot notice this whine at speeds greater than 80km/h. When I switch off the AC this whine goes away as well.

I have tried isolating this sound by switching off the ICE, but have been unsuccessful.

This sound has been there since the beginning and I thought that this whining would abate after logging some km.

I am guessing that it cannot be the AC belt since it is running all the time along with the engine? Could this be the sound from the AC clutch/compressor?

Can you please help me in diagnosing this sound? I am planning to take it to a MASS this weekend.